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Boy saves his dog after poisoned meatballs are thrown over fence, PA cops say
A Pennsylvania man was arrested after police said he tried to poison his neighbor's dogs.
On May 12, police were called to a home in Broomall and shown a home surveillance video, according to a Marple Township police affidavit.
The video showed a man wearing a hoodie, standing on the homeowner's property, throwing something into their fenced-in yard at around 4:45 a.m., police said.
At 6:45 a.m., the homeowner's 12-year-old son took their two Shih Tzu/Bichon mix dogs outside and noticed one of the dogs started to eat a meatball. The boy stopped the dog from eating the meatball, which was filled with rodent poison pellets, police said.
Police said they found 10 meatballs filled with poison when they arrived at the home.
Officers searched the area and knocked on neighbor Mark Nugent's door. When he answered, Nugent was in the same clothes as the man seen in the surveillance video, police said.
Officers told Nugent they identified him as the person in the video and Nugent told them the dogs annoy him because they 'bark all day,' according to police.
When asked what he threw into the yard, Nugent said, 'it was just hamburger that's it,' police said.
However, officers 'asked what the green stuff was,' and Nugent said 'it was something to make the dog sick,' the complaint said.
Days before the meatballs were found, the homeowners found hundreds of chocolate discs in their yard, but didn't have surveillance cameras up at the time, police said. They were able to clean it up before the dogs ate any of it.
'The guy took his time at 4 o'clock in the morning, both times with the chocolate, and this time to make meatballs and put rat poison in them. I mean, he was right outside my bedroom window doing this,' Joshua Hunter told WPVI.
The dogs were reported to be fine, police said.
Nugent, 61, was arrested and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, cruelty to animals, loitering and prowling at night time, criminal trespass/simple trespasser, disorderly conduct and harassment - course of conduct with no legitimate purpose. He was released after posting $5,000 of $50,000 bail. He's due back in court May 29.
Attorney information for Nugent was unavailable.
'I'm sitting here with ALS in a wheelchair with five kids, and my girlfriend and I don't feel safe at all. We're losing sleep. In the meantime, this guy is out, and I don't know what's going to happen,' Hunter told WPVI.
Broomall is about a 10-mile drive west from Philadelphia.
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